In Brief

EPC to OK expropriations

MAYOR Sam Katz's inner circle is poised to approve up to $5 million worth of expropriations to allow the $77-million Plessis Road Underpass to proceed.

City council's executive policy committee will meet behind closed doors Wednesday morning to approve expropriations that would only be necessary if negotiations with private landowners do not succeed.

Expropriation would be required if negotiations fail, as federal funding for the project is subject to tight timelines.

Driver shoos muggers

A motorist in St. James may have saved a 23-year-old man from serious injury when he scared off a couple of muggers Monday.

Winnipeg police said the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack early Monday at about 7:30 a.m. in the area of Strauss Drive and Moray Street.

Two men accosted the victim and the motorist stopped to help, interrupting the attack.

Both suspects in the attack were described as Caucasian in their 20s. They took off on foot.

Impassive at murder trial

EMERY Miles McLeod showed no emotion Tuesday when he was committed to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder in the February 2012 death of his roommate Darin Monias.

The decision by provincial court Judge Margaret Wiebe nixed an attempt by McLeod's lawyers to have the charge lowered to manslaughter at the preliminary hearing.

Monias's body parts were found last year in a Dumpster at York Avenue and Donald Street.

It's alleged McLeod killed Monias between Feb. 18 and Feb. 20, 2012. The two shared an apartment in the 200 block of Thomas Berry Street. It's believed Monias was killed in the St. Boniface apartment and his body dismembered.

A publication ban prevents the reporting of the details of the case.

Firearm charges for teens

A teenage boy and girl, both 17, face weapons charges in the seizure of a firearm stolen last fall.

Winnipeg police reported they recovered the firearm but didn't say what kind of gun it was. They executed a search warrant in a house in 400 block of Manitoba Avenue to get the weapon Monday.

The firearm had been reported stolen last October.

Both teenagers were in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre, police said.